Profile: City Roots Nursery

City Roots Nursery is landscaping with purpose.

While it feels like summer might be slowly slipping away, and along with it your flourishing garden and landscape dreams for the year, did you know fall is actually one of the best times to plant? Whether you are a native plant novice or are wanting to diversify your existing gardens with native plants, City Roots Nursery is here to answer all of your questions.

Founded in 2018, City Roots is Kansas City’s largest native plant nursery. Owners Zack and Kristen set out to beautify local gardens and businesses but also educate along the way. At City Roots you will find a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and perennial plants native to Missouri and Kansas. Their mission is to create a sustainable alternative to your typical garden center. All products, plants and supplies sold at City Roots are designed and tailored specifically for organic gardening practices.

After getting their start at the Brookside Farmers Market, City Roots expanded to their current location at 3037 Woodland Avenue four seasons ago and continue to add to their retail selection. The owners live nearby in the historic Ivanhoe neighborhood and have taken urban gardening to the next level by continuing to develop and expand their greenhouse and growing everything on site from seed! Once they are ready, the plants are then transferred to the storefront for purchase. Some seedlings are ready for purchase after one or two months and some might take one to two years. City Roots only grows and sells true native species. They start their plants from seed because this helps create more genetic diversity in their nursery stock and in turn, your gardens. City Roots doesn’t grow or sell any cultivars, because these plants are not as effective at feeding wildlife and may have different bloom structures or offer less nutrition– thus making it harder for wildlife to feed from them, or possibly not giving them the same quality nutrition a native species would have. Not only can you buy your natives at the storefront from March to October, but you can visit to get inspiration, plan your project (you can even bring pictures to discuss with them!), or simply admire the gardens modeled after our surrounding prairies, woodlands, and savannas.

If you are new to planting with natives, we also wanted to share some of the reasons around why it is superior to non-natives and landscaping for aesthetics only. One, by planting with natives you will truly be creating a living ecosystem. These plants will all be butterfly, bee, and songbird friendly so if your goal is to attract wildlife, you can’t go wrong. Your gardens will truly come alive! Most importantly, natives also easily adapt to our soil and climate meaning they need less water, care, and fertilizer once established compared to non-natives. Native plants also support sustainable practices such as keeping our water sheds clean, reducing effects of agricultural runoff, building healthy soil, reducing erosion, and helping clean the air in urban environments.

Zack also shared some tips for first time native gardeners and recommended starting with layers – think of adding a short plant, a medium height plan and then a tall plant as you build out your design. For spring planting, you would target March to May and for fall landscaping there are different timelines based on what you are planting, but can go as late as November. Another great resource on gardening with natives is www.grownative.org. You can find City Roots at 3037 Woodland Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64110, online at www.cityrootsnursery.com and @cityrootsnursery on Instagram. Let’s get back to our roots, Kansas City!